Trail Overview
North Blair Creek, or Shannon County Road 283, is a rough natural terrain County Road, starting on its north end at the intersection with Shannon County Road 235 at Midridge, traversing Blair Creek within the Roger Pryor Backcountry / Pioneer Forest, to meet its southern end at the intersection with Shannon County Road 242. Keep in mind that this track parallels and shares a path with an Equestrian route and Ozark Trail hiking path for a large portion of the track; be respectful of other users of the area. Along the way, the road traverses many water crossings over ever-changing Blair Creek gravel, paired with large cobble and small boulder-laced gravel bars, joined together by erosion-riddled coarse creek gravel road sections with tight tree lines, featuring mild ruts, with occasional dirt and sand sections turning into muddy water collection holes. This road passes several old homesteads, the McIntire Spring, and Dillard Cemetery, showing a glimpse of the past along one of the two main thrilling roads that make up the Blair Creek track. Please read the difficulty explained section before attempting this road.
Difficulty
North Blair Creek is given a 6/10, mainly because of the creek navigation required to safely traverse this road; it has several creek-bottom road sections, paired with an abundance of water crossings along the path. One water crossing in particular at 37.27786, -91.21267, is 3 feet deep in summer months and will be deeper in the wet seasons of the year. Other crossings usually are in the 6" to 2.5-foot range in summer; these still require spotting a line in the water to navigate and stay on higher, mounded creek gravel surfaces in the water. There are also optional rock ledges to go over at the shoreline of a few creek crossings, being in the 12-18" range at their highest. If users feel unsure about navigating this creek road or determining if crossings are safe, and can't gauge the depth of the water, it is suggested not to use this road system. Other users are advised not to go alone; this area is very remote and will test the vehicles that traverse the water crossings it throws at them. The northern part of the road is also situated on a slightly eroded hill featuring ruts, washes of the road surface, and potential dirty water collection holes. Again, during normal rain events, water depth will increase at all crossings, increasing the difficulty. During flooding events of the Current River, it is possible that the creek bottoms could be flooded and have water covering large portions of the road along Blair Creek, making the water crossings very deep and impassable. Consider the road closed during these flooding events; difficulty could also increase on the hill section from further erosion due to lack of maintenance or from heavy use in between cycles.
Offroad